And the Montreal Canadiens have taken the trend one step further by exposing their players to a stickhandling coach.

“You look at the great players and they were all great stickhandlers,” said Sean Skinner, who goes on to recite a litany of greats starting with Maurice Richard and Gordie Howe and continuing through Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux to contemporary stars like Joe Sakic, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.